Really tired of the giantbomb crew bashing gamestop

I wonder what the Bombcast will be like with the recent Gamestop Fiasco.  Taking out coupons and Selling open games as new... hope they spend some time on it, though I can already hear the, well we have said a lot so we wont say much approach.

I worked at a Gamestop in college. My coworkers were awesome but the company sucked.

You're right. I hate it when people express their opinion too.

Gamestop employees might just be employees doing a job, but head office is scumbags.

All I can tell is that opening a game and taking part of it and then selling you that game as new is like you going to Subway, ordering a sub and the guy takes a big bite of your sub before serving it to you.  If it were just one guy, I would agree that it would be wrong to bash the whole company based on that, but when it is a company-wide policy that employees have to take a bite of the customer's sub before serving it to them, then the company deserves all the criticism that it receives. 

Plenty of people have children on a minimum wage job.  I mean, it's an absolute shit situation, but people do it. 

@logicbombx said:

I love the giantbomb crew but you sound like a bunch of ignorant brats when you bash gamestop. All retailers suck, they all want your money but retailers like gamestop have helped the widespread acceptance and success of gaming. The giantbomb crew have careers in this field because of these retailers. I'm sorry if they have not always had pleasant experiences shopping at gamestop but the company employs thousands of people that are enthusiastic about gaming many of whom are trying to make their careers in gaming or possibly trying to support families. So when the crew bash gamestop i find their attitudes very disrespectful to these hardworking people that are partly responsible for eating job

Do you own stock in GS? because that is the ONLY reason i could see anyone taking up for them, sure.. most retailers suck but does bestbuy sell me opened games as new? no, do they take codes out of games? no, do they sell games/refurbed items that are so damaged they don't work? no.

Everything about Gamestop is bullshit, GB isn't putting down the employees, they are putting down the practice that is GS which is utter shit, the fact hat you are so upset at a few peoples opinions makes it where i just can't take you serious.

And they made their careers on gamestop? really? that is hands down the most dumbest thing i have heard all month. The only person who sounds like an ignorant brat is a certain someone in this thread, it's fucking opinions, get over it and put on your GS nametag and goto work because clearly you either work for GS, have stock in GS or own a chain because nobody else would get this upset or take up for them, it would be like someone taking up for walmarts practice which is proven to be vile.

Gamestop is a shitty story with shitty policies - I don't hold anything against the individual employees but are you really gonna defend a store that's almost single handedly responsible for the pre-order bullshit we have to put up with? Or a store that opens new games and sells them as new products? Or a store that runs false sales on it's site and only corrects the error after billing you?  Not to mention the fact that I can't just walk into one and buy a goddamn without being hounded to save $5 buying used or signing up for their preferred buyers club - again it's not the employees, it's the chain's policies, fuck 'em.

The OP personally built Gamestop from the ground up.

5 pages worth of assholes telling another asshole he's an asshole.
 
Silly people.

Gamestop treats their employees like shit too. The reason why you get harassed for pre-orders is because that's how they pretty much rate your performance. You can be the most helpful employee there, but if your numbers aren't up to snuff you wont get better hours. I have also never heard of a company paying their employees with their own in house debit card system. Instead of getting a check twice a month, they get money in their account which they can withdraw money from once a month without a service fee. They also couldn't care less about employee safety, they usually have only one employee during the morning shift when they know there's a history of Gamestops being robbed during the morning. Gamestop is pretty much a pawn shop that sells new games and shady people flock to it to sell shit for quick money.

General consensus seems to be fuck Gamestop but the employees are okay. 
 
Nah, fuck em all. 80% (arbitrary percentage I pulled out of my ass) are rude jerks and I don't like them either. I can give numerous examples but why bother; this is common knowledge.
  
I don't shop there anymore. Thank you.

GameStop brought video game to masses? You make it sound like they did something revolutionary.

The simply sell games, that's it. And the do some weird-ass things sometimes.

@ProfessorEss: I'd say that knowing the history of this site that statement might be a bit... "sensitive"?

Anyway back to the thread: the actions and attitudes of a company doesn't necessarily have to reflect those of their employees, nor vice versa. It might be a good idea to start thinking of the company and their employees as two separate things?

Talking about the negative experiences at a retail store and "bashing" the people who work there are two different things. If I say I hate McDonald's, that doesn't mean that I hate every person that works there.

Fuck off then.

I love the giantbomb crew but you sound like a bunch of ignorant brats when you bash SpaghettiOs®. All canned pasta products suck, they all want your money, but proceeded foods like SpaghettiOs® have helped the widespread acceptance and success of Italian food. The famous chefs have careers in this field because of these Campbell’s Soups & SpaghettiOs®. I'm sorry if they have not always had pleasant experiences eating SpaghettiOs® but the company employs thousands of people that are enthusiastic about canned pasta many of whom are trying to make their careers in processed foods trying to support families. So when the crew bashes SpaghettiOs® I find their attitudes very disrespectful to these hardworking people that are partly responsible for eating job

@logicbombx: can you sight examples where they have bashed gamestop? I think they more often bash stupid things like retailer specific DLC but that's a general criticism they make across the board.

Back in the hotspot podcast days Ryan would bag on gamestop because of legit problems but thats all that really comes to mind.

To be fair Gamestop has a long list of terrible corporate policies, but the employees usually are decent folks [its just a shame they have to follow foolish orders from HQ]. I recently canceled all of my pre-orders at my local gamestop for the upcoming fall release season because of the actions the company took in regards to Deus EX for the PC. I will just order everything from amazon for this point on, and I look forward to Gamestop going out of business in the near future when digital distribution becomes the norm.

This thread is fucking hilarious. I have to congratulate the OP on his dedication to pretending he knows what Giant Bomb and Gamespot are. It's like bad sports game commentary or that guy from Arma 2 'I really hate that JEFF GERSTMANN, and VINNY CARAVELLA is an asshole as well. These guys at WWW.GIANTBOMB.COM don't know what they are talking about, trust me I knew about all their stuff including ENDURANCE RUN, WHISKEY MEDIA HAPPY HOUR and QUICK LOOK. Anyway I'm going back to GAMESPOT.'

@McGhee_the_Insomniac said:

... I don't know if it happens at every Gamestop, but at the one I was at you were searched at the end of every shift. And it was everybody, even the people that had been their for years. You had to turn out all your pockets and pull up your pant legs so they could be sure you weren't stealing...

Seriously?

I haven't shopped at Gamestop for a very long time, since before they bought up EB. As a child, EB Games was always full of friendly people who really did care about the games. I remember the employees talking my parents out of shitty choices that I would have made, and I think that's a perfectly reasonable thing to do. Your best interest was always at heart, and I enjoyed being in and around EB Games. 
 
When Gamespot took them up, though, I immediately noticed the store had less nice people and more pushy people. There are still some good employees, but recently I've had a lot of trouble just buying a game. Before Deus Ex was released, they had a bring two, get PC version free deal. 
 
First, the new employee made a mistake and was going to charge me for the console version (which was bring two, pay ten bucks). That's fine, everyone makes mistakes. But then this total bitch walked over and defended his mistake. When I informed her that the PC version was free with the deal, she said, "Nope, that's not true." I argued with her for ten minutes on how I had just looked at the deal and read it over numerous times before coming here. I told her exactly what the agreement was ("If I bring in two games worth at least $8 in credit that qualify, I get the PC version of Deus Ex for free, the console version for ten bucks or the Augmented Edition for $20. I would like the PC version, and I've already been told these two games qualify for the deal), and she continued to deny it. She said she had to see the deal with her own eyes. So I said, "On Gamestop.ca, it's under the Weekly Trade-in Deals. It's the first deal on the page, and the PC version is the second line of the deal." 
 
So finally after five minutes of dicking around with her goddamn iPhone, she sees the deal and goes, "Oh." 
 
And then she charged me $6.75 for taxes. When I went in the next day, I told the manager of my terrible experience, and he apologized pretty honestly and then gave me the taxes back (which weren't supposed to be included) plus a complimentary $5 gift card. 
 
So nice people still do work there, but it seems they prefer to hire people who grub money as much as possible. I felt bad for the new employee, though. He was standing there like a deer in the headlights the whole time. Poor guy. ):

@leebmx said:

@jozzy said:

@McGhee_the_Insomniac said:

... I don't know if it happens at every Gamestop, but at the one I was at you were searched at the end of every shift. And it was everybody, even the people that had been their for years. You had to turn out all your pockets and pull up your pant legs so they could be sure you weren't stealing...

Seriously?

Yeah my mate works at Game in England and he says the same thing happens there. Think about it, they have loads of part-timers in for Xmas etc who don't give a fuck about the shop and are surrounded by expensive shit with good resell while being paid minimum wage. He said at their last stock count they had thousands (I can't remember the exact figure but I know it was in the low to middle thousands) of pounds worth of stock missing and it could only have been the staff. No games are boxed on the shelves and all the hardware is in the back or in a locked cabinet behind the counter.

Yup, used to work at a Gamestop for half a year before I ran the hell away.

Full search, had to unzip all your bags, pull your pockets inside out, even lift you pant legs (as if I'm stealing a dvd in my socks.

Totally dehumanizing. But that's Gamestops M.O.

@logicbombx said:

All retailers suck, they all want your money but retailers like gamestop have helped the widespread acceptance and success of gaming.

GameStop is one of the only specialty stores that is the worst place to buy items in that space.

Think about the release day experience: GameStop wants you to come to the store in advance of the release, makes you wait in a big slow line the day of to receive your product because they are busy matching preorder receipts to inventory, and they won't make any promises to provide you the extra pre-order content that makes up the only reason you pre-ordered in the first place even though they know the exact number of people who pre-ordered. If you try to avoid this gauntlet of bullshit and want to just go to the store and buy a game, you get a bunch of attitude from the staff like you're some sort of idiot for not pre-ordering because they only got a limited number of copies of a game that is guaranteed to sell four bazillion copies.

Alternatively, just go to a big box store, pick up one of the many copies off the display at the front, and buy it.

This thread is fucking hilarious. I have to congratulate the OP on his dedication to pretending he knows what Giant Bomb and Gamespot are. It's like bad sports game commentary or that guy from Arma 2 'I really hate that JEFF GERSTMANN, and VINNY CARAVELLA is an asshole as well. These guys at WWW.GIANTBOMB.COM don't know what they are talking about, trust me I knew about all their stuff including ENDURANCE RUN, WHISKEY MEDIA HAPPY HOUR and QUICK LOOK. Anyway I'm going back to GAMESPOT.'

Any place that can sell me two used games for the price of one new game is fine by me. Haven't payed full price for a game in a long time. I'll go there over any retailer.

@kingzetta said:

@Jonny7892 said:

This thread is fucking hilarious. I have to congratulate the OP on his dedication to pretending he knows what Giant Bomb and Gamespot are. It's like bad sports game commentary or that guy from Arma 2 'I really hate that JEFF GERSTMANN, and VINNY CARAVELLA is an asshole as well. These guys at WWW.GIANTBOMB.COM don't know what they are talking about, trust me I knew about all their stuff including ENDURANCE RUN, WHISKEY MEDIA HAPPY HOUR and QUICK LOOK. Anyway I'm going back to GAMESPOT.'

Wow I can't believe the ATLANTA FALCONS won.

I was so annoyed I couldn't find that Simpsons clip

@GunslingerPanda said:

Fuck off then.

Made me laugh.

I love the giantbomb crew but you sound like a bunch of ignorant brats when you bash gamestop. All retailers suck, they all want your money but retailers like gamestop have helped the widespread acceptance and success of gaming. The giantbomb crew have careers in this field because of these retailers. I'm sorry if they have not always had pleasant experiences shopping at gamestop but the company employs thousands of people that are enthusiastic about gaming many of whom are trying to make their careers in gaming or possibly trying to support families. So when the crew bash gamestop i find their attitudes very disrespectful to these hardworking people that are partly responsible for eating job

I haven't been in a Gamestop in at least a few years. Do they still...

...push Gamestop memberships at every single checkout, even going so far to pull out the signup form even when you specifically say no?

...try to dangle subscriptions of "game informer" to get you to become a member?

...buy random film/television dvds from methheads?

...tell someone bringing in several sealed copies of the same brand new game that were obviously stolen to go outside and take the plastic off and bring it back in to buy it?

...let employees "rent" a game for a few days and then sell it as new?

...push the used copies of the game after specifically bringing up a new copy of the game and then try to talk you out of getting the new copy?

...push the need for preorders by understocking new games on launch weeks?

...make awful machinima commercials?

If they still do any of these things, then yeah, fuck that company.

The sad thing is, that's just the stuff I was able to pull off the top of my head quickly. There's plenty of really shitting things I haven't mentioned yet.

@CrimsonNoir said:
Gamestop treats their employees like shit too. The reason why you get harassed for pre-orders is because that's how they pretty much rate your performance. You can be the most helpful employee there, but if your numbers aren't up to snuff you wont get better hours. I have also never heard of a company paying their employees with their own in house debit card system.

Shit. They don't give hours out anyways. When I worked there, I was the second highest "performer" in the store, across the board, and 6th or 7th highest in pre-orders in the district, but because I wasn't trained up yet to be a keyholder, I was given 10 hours a week. That was supposed to be good, btw, most only got 4. I was told by the district manager that they only give 80% of the hours to either the assistant or one keyholder, because everybody else "doesn't count as real employees." That was in her own words.

@handlas said:

General consensus seems to be fuck Gamestop but the employees are okay. Nah, fuck em all. 80% (arbitrary percentage I pulled out of my ass) are rude jerks and I don't like them either. I can give numerous examples but why bother; this is common knowledge. I don't shop there anymore. Thank you.

They are jerks usually for two reasons. The first, and most abundant, is that Gamestop attracts a specific type of person for employ. Now, I'm not talking about "gamers," I'm talking about "gaming elitists." Gamestop people are snobs because they are essentially the same assholes from record stores. They care a lot about a type of product, and they think that working a shit minimum wage job that sells those products somehow make them more informed about the product, and thus prance around like jackwads on a hipster trip.

The other reason, unfortunately, is that good, nice people, turn into assholes with time at that job. I've worked in a lot of retail jobs in my past, and the general group of people that came into Gamestop were probably the second dumbest, most ignorant people I've ever dealt with (second only to my days as an asst manager at a Hollywood Video.) That special kind of stupid wears you down after awhile, until your a cold bitter husk of a man.

@NickLott said:

...push Gamestop memberships at every single checkout, even going so far to pull out the signup form even when you specifically say no?

Yes and no. They usually don't bring up the signup form every time. Mostly because they don't really care enough to do so.

...try to dangle subscriptions of "game informer" to get you to become a member?

Only sometimes. The magazine must've not been as much of a money maker as of late, because I've been there several times recently and have never been asked for a sub.

...buy random film/television dvds from methheads?

Surprisingly no! They just continue to buy games and systems from methheads. But hey, don't knock methheads, I got a practically brand new PS3 from one for like $100.

...tell someone bringing in several sealed copies of the same brand new game that were obviously stolen to go outside and take the plastic off and bring it back in to buy it?

They won't take multiple copies of the same item anymore. Probably all those police reports.

...let employees "rent" a game for a few days and then sell it as new?

Okay, so here's the thing. Gamestop never allowed that. The "rental" policy (the 4 day borrow privilege) only is applicable to used copies of games, never new. Also, there are some stipulations. For example, the rules stated that you could only borrow a used game if there were more than two copies available, that way somebody who came in looking for it would still be able to buy it.

...push the used copies of the game after specifically bringing up a new copy of the game and then try to talk you out of getting the new copy?...push the need for preorders by understocking new games on launch weeks?...make awful machinima commercials?If they still do any of these things, then yeah, fuck that company.

Never had a problem with understocked games. Ever.

I don't understand the need to defend a retailer when in fact you say, "all retailers suck."

The employees are what they are. We all have our stories of interactions with the employees, but don't hold them asking me to per-order or purchase guides against them since it's something required of them to do.

I stopped going to GameStop because I disagree with their business model, I stopped going to Best Buy because I was tired of trying to be sold magazine subscriptions/have games fetched from a side closet. No ill will against either of them, I just prefer the ease of us I get with Amazon.

Okay, a few reasons...justifiable reasons have been raised on the bombcast concerning Gamestop.

Pre-order bonuses. - You pre-order a game, but unless you get there when the shop opens, you don't generally get it. This happened to Vinny. Once the employees have taken their share its first come first serve, BUT the advertising suggests you WILL get your pre-order bonus. If Amazon cannot provide the pre-order bonus they will generally compensate you. Gamestop gives you nothing.

Opening for game releases. - Occasionally Gamestops are supposed to open for midnight launches of games, even give you a website to check which stores are open. I think on at least 2 occasions the bomb squad have gone to a Gamestop that is supposed to be open...except...nope.

There is of course the large discrepancy between what you pay for a used game from Gamestop compared to what they give you for a used game. I know they need to make a profit, but when I can buy the game brand new from Amazon for considerably less than the second hand version at Gamestop that just doesn't seem right.

And of course the whole 'opening games to remove vouchers' fiasco.

Now to me, they don't actually 'bash' Gamestop, instead they convey their experiences at Gamestop. To me, that is a useful service.

I'm just shaking my head at this whole topic and the arguments here.
 
/facepalm

@allworkandlowpay said:

@NickLott said:

...try to dangle subscriptions of "game informer" to get you to become a member?

Only sometimes. The magazine must've not been as much of a money maker as of late, because I've been there several times recently and have never been asked for a sub.

Mainly because they seem to be pushing more toward digital distribution of Game Informer on the GI website. I've received a few e-mails telling me about it.

@mue said:

Pre-order bonuses. - You pre-order a game, but unless you get there when the shop opens, you don't generally get it. This happened to Vinny. Once the employees have taken their share its first come first serve, BUT the advertising suggests you WILL get your pre-order bonus. If Amazon cannot provide the pre-order bonus they will generally compensate you. Gamestop gives you nothing.

I can't speak for everywhere, but when I worked at a GS, we had one pre-order bonus per game, rubber banded to it. We never ran out except for second or third runs.

Opening for game releases. - Occasionally Gamestops are supposed to open for midnight launches of games, even give you a website to check which stores are open. I think on at least 2 occasions the bomb squad have gone to a Gamestop that is supposed to be open...except...nope.

Never seen it happen here. Must've been an issue with poor management at the store. District manager I used to work under made sure we had as many midnight launches as possible. We hated it, because almost every other week we were staying there til 1 on Monday nights.

There is of course the large discrepancy between what you pay for a used game from Gamestop compared to what they give you for a used game. I know they need to make a profit, but when I can buy the game brand new from Amazon for considerably less than the second hand version at Gamestop that just doesn't seem right.

The same thing happens to a car. The game is worth its money new, because when a game doesn't sell after a few weeks, they can ship it back to the distributor and get a refund. You can't do that with a used game. A used game costs money every day it sits on a shelf. Not only do they have to pay for the space, but also have to pay for the employees it costs to sell it, the electricity, the security, the water. All costs add to the overhead of what it takes to let a game sit on a shelf before its bought. That overhead dictates the cost of the game (demand of the game keeps the price higher Cost of Keep + Demand) as well as the value of the trade-in (newer games are valued at Demand - Cost of Keep.) A newer game more likely to cost less overhead due to higher demand will be valued higher, after the cost of keep. Is it slimy that they sell a just recently used game for 55.95? Yeah, but before you bring your pitchforks out, remember that not only do they have to pay for the cost of keep, but also need to make a profit ontop of the credit given that's usually used to pay partially on the game. If it was an equal value, they'd already be in the red.

God, I'm starting to sound like a Gamestop apologist.

@logicbombx said:

many of whom are trying to make their careers in gaming

by working at gamestop? Thats like trying to become a chef by doing the fries at McDonalds.

Terrible thread is terrible.  I'll never understand one guy threatening to cancel a subscription to something if he doesn't get his way, and honestly thinking anyone cares, or that the service provider will change just to keep you around.  Gamestop is a bag of dicks, whatever bashing they get, they deserve 100%.  Sure, some good people work at some locations, but the overall business, huge bag of dicks.  Pulsating and veiny.

Never understood the idea that "people work there! - people with FAMILIES!" is supposed to be a reasonable counterpoint for slagging a corporation's business practices and/or consumer experience. Lousy companies deserve to be called lousy, and bad companies deserve to go out of business.

I have a token amount of empathy for anyone who loses their job because of this, but it doesn't change anything.

- Scott

@Immuniity said:

@logicbombx said:

many of whom are trying to make their careers in gaming

by working at gamestop? Thats like trying to become a chef by doing the fries at McDonalds.

Not even - at least you're making food in that scenario.

This is like trying to become a chef by working in a grocery store. Never heard of a game developer or publisher looking for retail store experience when hiring developers or artists, just like "I used to sell tomatoes!" won't get you a job as a cook.

- Scott

If you work at Gamestop for more than a season you're a loser j/s

One would assume a company that does nothing but sell games would at least be good at it. One would be wrong, of course.

There is a difference between bashing a company's employees and a company's policies, and as far as I can tell they've always criticized the policies.

Gamestop sucks more.

I don't recall them bashing Gamestop all the time, but I also may not have noticed because I tend to agree with everything bad said about the company. I voice my dislike for them by never giving them my money. All that said, if you really like Gamestop, I can see why bad mouthing them would bother you.

well haters are going to hate. the only way to forget about it is by not listening to it.

check this out:

fuck gamestop.

Sounds like someone works at gamestop!